REdemption
by Sheep
Summary: With Sephiroth a mere memory once again, Cloud returns to Seventh Heaven to perform his job as delivery boy only to receive a job from some familiar shady characters. But, nothing is as it seems…
1. The Magician

Summary: With Sephiroth a mere memory once again, Cloud returns to Seventh Heaven to perform his job as delivery boy only to receive a job from some familiar shady characters. But, nothing is as it seems…

* * *

Seventh Heaven. A friendly bar that was run by a beautiful woman and doubled as the headquarters of the Strife Delivery Service. It also served as a home for two children; one of who was an orphan. Standing in a small town beside what was left of the bustling city of Midgar, it tried to make do with what little it had with hope that the world would get better with the help of a friend that they had lost.

Geostigma had ravaged that home. It infected men, women and children in the area, though the children were most vulnerable. It had been started by the Abomination, the dark star that the Heavens had sent down and created the malicious villain Sephiroth: Jenova.

This was the home that Cloud Strife had shunned.

This was the home that he had returned to after he abolished Sephiroth again.

This was where he found his forgiveness.

This was also where he found more suffering and adventure.

Night was settling in and Cloud rode his motorcycle, Fenrir, through the narrow streets of Edge back to Seventh Heaven from making a delivery just beyond the Wastelands that surrounded the dilapidated city. Though not many lights were on despite the late hour, people bustled around to live out the nightlife that once was.

Due to complications of his troubled past, he kept wearing the SOLDIER uniform of dark blue attire and keeping Fenrir well equipped with an assortment of large, broad blades. He knew how to reason with this quirk now; he took a wide variety of jobs that came his way and needed his skills more often than not.

The headlights of the motorcycle passed over the two children who stayed with him and the barkeep, Tifa. He watched with his stoic blue eyes as they ran over to him as he parked next to the bar.

"Cloud!" The girl, Marlene, was joyful and cheery as always whenever she saw him. "You're back! I was hoping you would come back."

Cloud nodded, a small smile pulling at his mouth as Fenrir powered down.

"You're going to stay longer this time, aren't you?" Denzel, the other orphan, asked him. Though still just a child, he understood what absolute obsession, hatred and isolation could do to a whole world, having been infected with Geostigma and following Kadaj, a spawn of Jenova, for a short time.

Cloud nodded and said, "Yes."

The two children smiled. It was rare for Cloud to return to Seventh Heaven for more than a day or two before heading out again on a delivery of sorts.

He got off his motorcycle and looked at them sternly. "Shouldn't you two be inside by now? It's late and I doubt Tifa wants you out here right now."

"Tifa's the one who told us to stay out here!" Marlene exclaimed. Her big brown eyes expressed annoyance and she shook her long braid. "She told us to come out here to play until you came back and met with some customers."

"Customers?" Cloud asked, confused. Normally, Tifa would tell them to return at a later time if he was out.

"We've been out here since after lunch," Denzel told him, his red hair dangling in his eyes.

Cloud glanced inside the bar. He could see Tifa and knew that she saw him come back by the way she was moving: quick and graceful with the glasses. He looked back at the two pairs of innocent faces.

"All right. I'll go inside and talk to them so you two can get back in." He ruffled Denzel's hair, making him laugh. "And once we're done, we'll talk about getting you a haircut."

"Speak for yourself, Cloud!" They both called after him as he went inside, referring to his distinguishing spiky, astonishingly blond hair. They often teased him when he returned about how it always stayed in its form, no matter what was done with it.

Tifa, busty as always with fierce battle skills but a truly kind and loyal soul, was busy serving customers at the bar when he came in. Dressed in her usual black outfit and Converse shoes, she waved and pointed to a partitioned section that was just put up when he caught her eye.

An awkward silence fell and noise rose in the bar as Cloud walked between the tables and passed by the patrons. His boots purposely made heavy footsteps as he approached and the thick cloth that wrapped around his left leg that doubled as a layer of protection kicked out with every step.

"You keep scaring people, yo."

Reno's shockingly red hair was the first thing Cloud noticed before he even heard him. On the other side of Reno, who was sitting sprawled in his seat and his shirt rumpled as always, was his partner, Rude. "You need to stop scaring the customers."

Cloud glared at them both and pointed to the bottle of hard liquor on the table. "You need to stop drinking before either of you do something you regret later."

"Now, now, Cloud." A voice came from under a white cloth that draped over a man in the wheelchair that sat right across from where Cloud was standing. "We're all civilized here."

"Rufus?" Cloud stared at the man, shocked. This was the last place he had expected to see him.

He chuckled, never revealing his face. "It's nice to see you again, ex-SOLDIER Cloud. Since the Geostigma is destroyed, I must believe that the previous problem has been neutralized and I must congratulate you on staying so well-tuned with your skills."

"Whatever you want, I don't want to hear it," Cloud said brusquely.

"Please, listen…"

"You're Shinra."

"Cloud, we're just asking you…"

"I'm not interested."

"The Mako…"

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

Cloud stood his ground and stared down at the seemingly crippled man in front of him who was once the head of Shinra Energy, the corporation who refined the use of the Lifestream to make the lives of humans more convenient. Also using Mako reactors and Jenova's cells, they enhanced the abilities and strengths of those willing to work under them as SOLDIERS.

They were the ones who created Sephiroth.

"Ever vigilant," sighed Rufus. "You know Shinra has a huge debt to pay to this world and you helped us enormously. As an ex-SOLDIER and AVALANCHE rebel, you must understand the need to redeem yourself."

This made Cloud pause. "Redeem yourself?"

"Or, to put it more simply, to be forgiven by others. I want some of the world to forgive Shinra for what we did, Cloud. That is why I came to you."

"I'm a delivery boy, Rufus. I'm not a warrior anymore."

"Why don't you listen, yo?" Reno spoke up with a shot of the golden liquor in his hand. "We want you to make one for us. A delivery. We know that you do the most fucked-up deliveries out there that most wouldn't even dream of even considering."

Cloud let a small scoff escape him. Rufus took that as a gesture of assent.

"What we need done is complicated and dangerous." His hand, free of all traces of Geostigma, motioned out the window to the world. "There are lives at stake here that are in very real danger. You know this for a fact that you are usually the only one who can do jobs that fit the description."

"Yeah," he said with heavy sarcasm, "like last time?"

Rude cleared his throat as Reno nonchalantly looked over his shoulder outside. The whole ordeal surrounding Kadaj and his gang as well as the second appearance of Sephiroth nearly took all of their lives. The Turks had actually helped Cloud and his gang in several different occasions but had failed to fully prevent Cloud from getting shot and brought back with the power of the Last Cetra.

"Please, Cloud," Rufus pleaded. He heaved a long sigh and the cloth around him billowed slightly. "Shinra has nothing to do with this. People are dying because of me right now and I am willing to everything in my power to help undo the damage I've caused. I need you to take this job."

The need to be forgiven. Cloud knew this desire very well and was still struggling with it. Danger would always surround him and he could just as easily see this as another job as to refuse it because they're Shinra. He looked at the three of them with intense seriousness that frightened most people.

"Fine. Where do I pick it up?"

* * *

A/N: Obviously, this takes place after Advent Children but before Dirge of Cerberus, which I am very much looking forward to playing.

This is just a little idea that I've been throwing around a bit for the past little while so I'm more or less making it up as I go along. But don't worry! I'll make sure to keep as close as possible with the FFVII world and even with each character's Limit Breaks. But if anybody notices any plot holes (since it's kind of late when I'm writing this), it's much appreciated for reviews!

If I continue this, I plan on having the rest of the FFVII gang show up at one time or another. How big each role is, I have no idea.

Also, my mindset for this is the Japanese format so expect this to have a bit more prose than you'd expect. (The dubbed version was tampered with a bit from the original and the lines they gave to Yazoo and Loz just killed it for me.)

Ja ne!


	2. The Star

_"If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him."_ (Genesis 4:7)

* * *

He was standing in a field of flowers. Nothing else was around him except for the flowers and grass growing around him. Nothing. There wasn't even a sky or an end in sight where he was but he wasn't scared at all. He had been in that place many times before, when he wanted to talk to her, the maiden.

Gentle hands gently touched his arms from behind him.

"You're here again," a sweet voice said, amused. "Don't you ever stay at home, Cloud? I thought you didn't need to be here anymore. Or is it because of me?"

He paused, unsure of his answer. "I just want… to find redemption."

"Redemption?" She repeated. "The same as forgiveness… You want to be forgiven, right? By who? You didn't do anything to anybody that wasn't deserved; only to yourself." She sighed exasperatedly. "We already went through this, Cloud."

"No, not for me. For someone else. How do you find redemption for someone else?"

"Trying to find redemption for someone else," she said softly. She giggled, "Always have to be the nice one underneath that SOLDIER façade, don't you? Sorry, but I can't tell you how to do that. You have to find that out yourself."

Cloud looked over his shoulder to her and saw a glimpse of her braid. "Am I able to?"

"Do you really have to ask?" She said playfully and gave him a gentle push out of the meadow.

He fell out of the bright meadow of flowers into darkness, where the shadows pressed in around him. It felt cold and a bitter wind whirled around him as he fell through the air. Shrieks and wails of pain that seemed neither human nor bestial echoed through his ears.

Crimson black hands encrusted with infections and wounds reached out to grab him. He moved and dodged them all as he fell but the sight and smell of the hands and the bodies that came at him were disturbing him greatly.

He turned his sight down to where he was falling and saw a sea of dark red blood that stretched out as far as he could see rushing up to meet him.

"No…!" He cried out as the blood continued to come closer and closer.

Faces and bodies were seen under the surface, not quite dead and yet not alive. Twisted and contorted, some looked to be stuck forever in a state of anguish in their own blood.

Two faces rose up from the sea, scarred and disfigured. Under the wounds, he could barely tell out their figures but saw that they were mere children who got caught in the turmoil. Their faces were wrought with pain and desperation as they reached up to grab and pull him into their world.

"Help us! Save us!"

Cloud struggled to escape this nightmare but he continued to fall.

"Come give us our redemption, Cloud!" The voices rang within his head. "Please, Cloud!"

His hand came within an inch of the children's hands when everything dissolved into a warm shadow that suddenly turned into a bright light.

"Cloud! Wake up!"

Gasping, he turned his head and saw an innocent, if not worried, face of the young girl who he knew so well. "Marlene! What are you…?"

Her small hands were still gripping his shirt at the shoulder, where she was shaking him awake from his sleep. Her eyes were wide with fear and worry when she asked, "Are you okay, Cloud? You wouldn't wake up for the longest time."

"Yeah," he managed to say, "yeah, Marlene. I'm fine. It was just a bad dream."

"Are you sure?"

He gave her a small smile and nodded. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he realized that he was drenched in a cold sweat and quickly wondered where that dream could have come from.

"Tifa asked me to come up here and wake you up," Marlene chirped after being satisfied that he would be okay. "The sun's been up for a pretty long time and you weren't up and she had to open up the bar so I came up here and found you tossing and turning. That must've been a really bad dream!"

"It was…" He sat up in his bed and ran a hand through his bedraggled hair. His plain gray shirt that he preferred to go to sleep in was moist with sweat as well. He couldn't wait to get in the shower to wash away the lingering feelings of his nightmare.

Marlene climbed up onto his bed and sat on his legs. She looked at him sternly and vaguely reminded him of Tifa when she wanted something done. "Tifa also told me to make sure that you'd be downstairs for breakfast! So rise and shine, silly Cloud! We have to have breakfast together!"

"I'm getting up!" He took her under the arms and lifted her down off his bed before slipping out and getting out himself.

"Ew, Cloud! You need to shower first!" Marlene wrinkled her nose when she got close to him. "You smell!"

Startled, he looked at her and hung his head. "Okay, okay. But you have to tell Tifa that I'll be a little late for breakfast because I have to shower."

Marlene nodded and went downstairs to relay the message. But, halfway down, he heard her call down the stairs, "Tifa! Cloud has to shower first before he comes downstairs because he stinks!"

Denzel had just come out of the washroom when she said that and Cloud dragged himself to the shower. He asked with a small laugh, "You stink, Cloud?"

"Apparently," Cloud replied and passed Denzel to get into the washroom.

"Ugh!" Denzel exclaimed exaggeratedly and hopped out into the hallway holding his nose, laughing. "You smell worse than a Chocobo left out in the rain too long!"

"You're one to talk," Cloud shot back as he started to close the door.

"Uh... Cloud!" Denzel looked at him, a little dejectedly. "We… We're not going to be able to go and get a haircut, are we? That's why Tifa kept me and Marlene outside, right? Because you had another job offer?"

He held the door open a bit, looked at the boy and nodded, "Yeah. It's urgent, too."

"Oh," he said, failing to hide his disappointment and his eyes traveling to the floor.

Cloud stepped out into the hallway in front of him and gently ruffled Denzel's hair. "Hey. Once I get back, we'll go, okay? We'll even see if we can get Marlene to cut hers, too."

Denzel chuckled and moved Cloud's hand away from him, "All right. As long as you promise!"

"Yeah, I promise. Now get downstairs and help Tifa out with breakfast. I'll be down in a while." He patted Denzel's shoulder to send him on his way. "And make sure to leave some for me!"

Cloud quickly washed away all the sweat and the vividness of his nightmares in the shower and changed out of his baggy cotton pajamas into his usual attire reminiscent of a SOLDIER's uniform. Ungloved, unarmored and barefooted, he took some time fixing his hair to be its usual spiky self before heading down to the bar.

Denzel and Marlene were already halfway through their breakfasts at the bar when Cloud came downstairs. Seventh Heaven was quiet as usual in the morning with a few loyal patrons sitting closer to the windows and sunlight rather than under the fans and the vague shadows of the bar. Tifa was busy wiping down tables.

"Cloud!" Marlene jumped off her seat and ran to him. "You're up!" Instead of hugging him, she just stood in front of him and glared again. "You were supposed to spend the day with us!"

"I know, I'm sorry."

"Marlene," Tifa said as she looked up, "you know Cloud has a very spontaneous schedule with his delivery service so nothing's guaranteed."

"I'll at least eat breakfast with you." Cloud took Marlene's hand and took her back to her seat. "Hey, Tifa! You're not joining us?"

Smiling, Tifa came and sat on the other side of Cloud after bringing their breakfasts. "Just waiting for you, Cloud."

It was shortly after breakfast when Cloud had sent the children to their studies and came back down to the dining area of Seventh Heaven in full gear, complete with armor and gloves. He also came back to Tifa continuing to wipe down the tables in complete silence.

"I'm going now," he said, walking closer to her and the door. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

"You know, you didn't have to take that job," she said abruptly.

Almost reaching the door, he stopped. After spending this much time with her, he knew she was a little upset, especially since she had never objected to any of his previous jobs before this.

"You know it's dangerous and you might not come back. What are you looking for? It's them, for crying out loud! You really think that they're up to any good? For all we know, what happened with Kadaj and Sephiroth was just a mask to gain your trust for whatever they have planned now." She had stopped wiping the tables and was talking to his back, knowing that he'd listen, even if he was going to be late.

"He said something about looking for redemption, forgiveness. I don't think I can refuse someone looking for that."

They ignored the remaining patrons in the bar, which was a bad habit of Tifa's whenever she got upset.

"If they want to find forgiveness, let them find it on their own! There's no reason for you to go and do it for them. It wouldn't be right for them to be forgiven like that… Wouldn't it? It is them and whatever they ask you to do always ends up with you hurt or near death! Barret's coming today and he's going to want to talk to you, anyway!"

Cloud said nothing and an awkward silence fell in the bar. Tifa just looked at him, holding back her tears, knowing that she couldn't possibly summon the courage to tell him her feelings.

"Tifa…"

"Just go." She turned away from him, crossing her arms.

He turned and looked at her. "Tifa, I'll come back. I promised Denzel I'd go get his haircut with him and Marlene. So tell Barret not to do that while he's here."

"Right," she said, still not looking at him.

"Call me if you need me, okay?" He called over his shoulder as he left the bar, leaving Tifa alone with the kids and the patrons pretending not to have been eavesdropping on their conversation.

He slid onto Fenrir, quickly taking out his base sword and sliding it into the holster on his back. He would most likely need it, where he was going. He put on his new goggles, geared his motorcycle into life and rode off out of Edge.

The side roads of Edge were narrow but he had plenty of room to maneuver as he traveled into the ruins of what was now Midgar. The buildings that lined the roads grew steadily worse in disrepair and habitability. Some buildings had been pilfered through and a familiar path to a church was well worn.

Once the slums of Midgar, what was once Section Five now housed the most important thing in all the city's ruins: the church of the Lifestream.

Cloud briefly questioned the reason why Rufus wanted to meet him here as he approached the church as he did many times before when he saw that a small pack of Cuahls gathered around the entrance of the church. Some of them were attacking the barricaded doors while a couple of them crept around to enter through the wreckage.

Fenrir roared and reared up as Cloud commanded it to tear down the road. He quickly pulled out the base sword from behind and slashed down a Cuahl while crashing down the doors of the cathedral with Fenrir.

"Hey, hey!" Reno yelled at him, stumbling back a bit to keep from getting run over by Cloud. "Watch where you're going, at least!"

Cloud pulled Fenrir to a stop, parallel to the doors. All the Turks were situated on the ground, careful to stay away from the water.

Reno was in front with his electric rod in his hand and standing rather cockily. Rude was next to him, fists out and ready for the Cuahls. Behind Cloud were Tseng and Elena, both wielding their own shotguns aimed at the doors.

"Time to get some action, eh, Rude?" Reno chuckled.

"Keep your mind on the job, Reno!" Elena called from the back.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…"

The Cuahls burst inside, leaping through the air with claws outstretched from their incredibly long forearms. Their yowls screeched through the church as they pounced on their prey, temporarily shocking Cloud and the Turks.

Quick to recover, Cloud swung his base sword and slammed a Cuahl into the wall. His other hand plunged into Fenrir's compartments and yanked out the Collision Blade just before jumping off Fenrir to avoid another Cuahl's attack.

The church was filled with the snarls of the cat-like monsters and the gunfire of Tseng and Elena.

Reno had rushed straight into battle with his electric rod and dealt severe damage to the Cuahls and finished them off with the brute force of Rude. He had just given out a lethal zap when he heard a deep growling right behind him.

"Oh, shit!" He exclaimed as his blue eyes widened and the Cuahl's jaws came closer and closer, the tentacles that protruded from behind its ears stiffened for balance and for extra stored energy to absorb the shock of landing on him.

A gunshot cracked and the monster was sent sprawling onto the ground, yowling.

"You're welcome, Reno," Tseng's deep, cool voice carried effortlessly over the battle to him before he went back to slaying the monsters.

"Yup, thanks, buddy!" Reno called back to him.

After jumping off of Fenrir, Cloud landed on one of the fallen pillars that were strewn around the nave to have two Cuahls chasing him, fangs bared. One was coming from the ledge that opened to the outside while the other was chasing him from his motorcycle up the pillar, both rapidly closing the gaps between him and them.

He leaped straight up into the air from the slanted pillar towards the tip of the pillar, Cuahls leaping up after him. He twisted in the air, with his blades out and flipped backwards, catching the two monsters in the ribs with his swords. Coming down and righting himself, he performed a powerful cross-slash, causing the monsters to go hurtling through the air and crashing into the opposite side of the church.

Cloud landed on the ledge of the crumbled wall, creating a silhouette of him into the nave as the remaining Cuahls were defeated and chased off by the Turks. Slightly hidden in the corner, he saw a familiar blanketed man sitting in a chair.

Without warning, a particularly scarred Cuahl suddenly jumped out from the debris behind Cloud, yowling and fangs bared. Given a direct blow of its Blaster attack, he couldn't move and could only watch the gaping maw come closer.

A flurry of movement came from within the nave. A blur of white. A shotgun cocked and its shot blasted and echoed throughout the church. The Cuahl flew back and landed outside the building, dead.

Rufus was walking around the pool of Lifestream-infused water, his smoking shotgun still raised. "My, my, Cloud. Those battle skills of yours are getting a tad rusty, aren't they?"

Cloud just glared and jumped down from the ledge. "I notice you're walking and moving. What's with the blanket and wheelchair? Too hard to nurse off?"

"Funny," Rufus replied dryly. He hid his shotgun within his wheelchair again, brushing his sleek blond hair out of his eyes.

"Gotta keep hidden from the public eye, man," Reno said, retracting his metallic rod. "Shinra isn't exactly the most popular name to pass around these days, what with mako almost destroying the world through Sephiroth's hands and everybody thinking that Boss is dead."

"President Rufus needs his anonymity at the moment," Tseng said sternly. He quickly neatened his dark hair and put away his gun. "It isn't quite time to reveal himself again to the public even though everything within the company is being arranged."

"Whatever," Cloud said casually, "I'm just here to make a delivery as long as all the pay is due." He disassembled his First Tsurugi and put both swords in his holster. "You didn't tell me what I was delivering and where when we met last night."

Elena brought out a small case of vials that would normally be used in a large injection gun or in the battlefield as heal items.

"This is what you're delivering," Rufus said and motioned to the crate. He put a hand in one of the pockets of his impeccably white suit. "We just need to fill them up with the water from this church before you deliver them."

Stepping forward to the edge of the pool, Cloud said, "This is an incredibly potent elixir… You're not thinking of…"

"Selling it? No. This spring needs to be kept in secret right now. We need you to deliver this to Gongaga. I'm pretty sure you know where that is." Rufus forced himself to hide a smirk but failed to hide his sarcasm.

Cloud said nothing, also being civil in light of changing times, and began to bottle the water from the spring. _I hope you don't mind_, he thought in his mind.

Rude and Elena helped him fill the remaining canisters and a couple of regular water bottles and packed them into Fenrir neatly with him. He held the last one in his hand and looked at it carefully.

"You're calling it REdemption, huh?" Cloud turned the canister over in his hands.

Rufus nodded. "There are some people out near Gongaga who need it. You don't have to stay and distribute them, but you're free to do it. But knowing you, you'd probably stay to make sure they're given out neatly and completely anyway, ex-SOLDIER Cloud."

"Being an ex-SOLDIER doesn't make a difference, Rufus." He hid that last canister into his shoulder armor pad. "It's about being a good man."

Rufus merely smiled dryly.

"Make sure you enjoy the sights up there," Reno said, patting Cloud's back and smiling as Cloud revved up Fenrir.

Cloud just scowled at him, making him back away.

"As always, be careful," Tseng warned. "Things aren't all what they seem up near Gongaga. Especially what goes on where you're heading."

"… I'll keep that in mind," Cloud said and rode Fenrir out of the church and into the wild.

* * *

A/N: I thought I'd add in a little quote from the bible since it's pretty relevant. Anyway… I don't think I have anything else to comment at the moment. REVIEW, please! Anything to help me would be great! 


	3. The Moon

"_When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth."_ (Genesis 4:12)

-------

Cloud was taking a brief rest on the westernmost point of the ruins of Midgar before he made his way across the Eastern Continent to the Western to get to Gongaga. He sat on the ground, leaning against a fallen wall with Fenrir resting calmly near him.

He turned the vial in his hands over and over again. The healing water of the Lifestream tumbled to and fro under the transparent coverings and the etchings that read "REdemption" from the top to bottom.

"Maybe you were right, Tifa," he said quietly under his breath, still watching the elixir flow. "It isn't my place to find redemption for someone else… But I think I have to, just this one time."

The waking sun shot beams of the dawn light through the cracks of the ruins, illuminating the specks of dust that floated around lazily around him. The ruins were quiet and desolate as always, save for the peaceful morning songs of the birds that nestled in the rafters of the upper plates.

Cloud slid the vial back into his shoulder pad, protecting it from harm. He got up and drew out a ration from a small compartment in Fenrir, scrutinizing it for a moment with his eyes before eating it.

A faint flutter from within him caught his attention and whirled him around to look back to the city. There was nothing to be heard and nothing to be seen.

Absolutely nothing.

Even the birds had fallen silent as faint rumbling, as if from the footsteps of a giant, was coming from deep inside the city, in the ground. It was so faint that Cloud had questioned whether or not he had imagined the noise long after it had faded away.

He shifted his motorcycle into gear and tore off into the Wastelands towards the harbor, where he would be crossing the sea by boat.

Ever since the incident with Holy and Meteor, the world had turned calmer and more peaceful. Monsters attacked less as the mako reactors were nonfunctional and didn't pollute the land as much. They would look back at him as he passed by on Fenrir with suspicious, quizzical but peaceful eyes.

Likewise with the people at the harbor and ports, they treated Cloud with intimidated respect due to the familiar SOLDIER's outfit he wore. In everyone's mind, the dominion of Shinra was gone but the strength and the power of the SOLDIERs could still be found and shouldn't be taken lightly.

Cloud was leaning on the railing of the barge he had managed to hitch a ride with, eating some of the provisions the crew had provided for its guests and trying to enjoy the refreshing winds of the sea.

A jovial older man, obviously a working man who was on a trip between cities, came and stood beside him, putting down his own cargo.

"She's beautiful, isn't she? She gives life with the waters that fill her up and takes it away with those same waves," he said dreamily. "Sometimes makes me wish that I could live out here."

"The crew managed to persuade you otherwise?" Cloud asked casually, not minding the company at all.

"Turned my mind around about it all like a scared Chocobo," the man laughed. "So whereabouts are you heading off to? Or are you just visiting Costa del Sol for a while?"

Cloud shrugged, unsure himself. "I plan to stay there for a while, I guess. I don't think I could stay for long." He nodded to Fenrir. "Got a package that needs to be delivered in there and it can't delay for too long, I've been told."

"Ah, so you're a delivery man," he said, nodding as if he understood. He patted the abnormally large parcel that almost reached his shoulder. "I, myself, am a traveling merchant so I know what it's like to be always moving. Are you part of any particular circle?"

"Strife Delivery Service and that's it. We're based in Edge."

"Edge?" A harsh, travel-worn man looked over at them with sharp, dark eyes when he heard the city's name. He seemed dubious at the stability of Cloud. "You come from Edge? How the hell're you able to run a business in that rundown city?"

Cloud scowled back at him. "I manage."

"Well, kid," the man came over, smelling of smoke, traces of blood, dirt and cold rage covering his worn out jacket. His slicked back brown hair was slightly unkempt in the salty wind of the sea and the lower half of his face was partially covered by a thick scarf that was also wound over his gray shirt. "You better be prepared to go through all them circles of hell if you're goin' by Gongaga."

The merchant beside Cloud suddenly shivered and cringed. "Even a young man like you would have a hard time with what's lurking out there, I've heard."

"Even if you do have some of that SOLDIER training," the dark-eyed man sneered, looking Cloud up and down.

Ignoring the obvious mercenary in front of him, Cloud asked, "What's out at Gongaga?"

"Somethin', that's for sure. What it is exactly, nobody's sure since nobody's rightly come back with a hard story. One guy'll say that there're monsters nobody's ever seen before that use people's bodies to move around and kill others. Another'll say that there're ghosts that haunt the area and suck the souls out of anybody who comes near. Even others'll say that a bunch o' monsters just melded and mutated into each other to get new, bigger, badder beasts that'll start to invade the rest of the world."

The merchant looked down, in a reverie and scratched the stubble on his chin. "Whatever it is, it's made Gongaga a dead city. It kind of was before, yeah," he added when the saw the exasperated look on the mercenary's face, "it's just more so now."

"Thanks for the notice," Cloud said, cursing Shinra in his mind. "Now I'm actually warned."

"You're actually heading around Gongaga?" The merchant looked amazed and scared. "The guy who hired you must've known that it's practically a suicide mission to go there."

"I've had worse," Cloud said plainly, eating the remains of his food.

The mercenary barely took his eyes off of Cloud, glaring and trying to analyze the young man. The merchant noticed but said nothing since it didn't seem to bother Cloud and went back to admiring the sea.

"You look familiar," the mercenary said to Cloud. "But I'm pretty damn sure I haven't met you before." Then, his eyes narrowed in revelation. "You're that kid who was involved with that Bahamut Sin in Edge a while back."

Cloud vaguely nodded and saw the merchant turn his head back towards the two men at the mention of the Summon.

"You and your buddies actually managed to beat it. I watched you guys from afar. Y'guys think you can save the world or something?"

"No," Cloud replied, looking at him straight in the eye, "we just usually persuade the one who can. She's the one who save our world from both Meteor and the Sephiroth elements. We just helped along."

"What's your name?" The merchant asked kindly, intrigued by him.

"Cloud. Cloud Strife."

The merchant held out his hand and shook Cloud's. "I'm Mikhail Sokolov. Usually, I'm just known as Mik, though. If you need anything and I have it, just ask and I'll give you a much fairer price than most other merchants."

"You didn't quite tell us for real where you were off to, kid," the mercenary said gruffly.

"I'd rather know who asks first before I reveal my destinations," Cloud snapped back, just as coolly and calmly. Mik looked edgily at the mercenary for his reaction.

Stunned but begrudgingly, he said, "Anyun. You could kind of say I'm on the market. You going to tell us where you're going or what?"

"I'm going to Gongaga. The things I'm delivering need to get there so I can't take too much time in Costa del Sol." He turned to Mik. "But I think I might need some supplies in case anything does happen."

Anyun went silent and kept his distance as the merchant happily showed Cloud his wares. He fished out a pack of cigarettes from the depths of his jacket and walked away, leaving a trail of smoke behind him to the wind. However, his departure and mysterious nature didn't fully escape Cloud.

They sailed through the day and throughout the night, encountering few disturbances and monsters along the way. Mik, along with a few others on board, remarked about how calm everything was with the mako reactors shut down and the monster populations down.

Cloud slowly rode off the barge to an inn that Mik had recommended that they could take lodging in. Even in the morning, Costa del Sol was bright, sunny and hot with lots of people bustling about.

"Tourist trap," Cloud muttered under his breath and wound his way between the crowds through the streets.

On the barge, Cloud had talked with Mik enough to know that he was an honest man who loved what he did and trusted him in his advice, also knowing that he was genuinely friendly even though he might not stay in once place too long.

Despite the fact that Mik seemed to have developed a slight hero-worshipping attitude towards him, Cloud found him to be quite fun to keep as company as he wasn't quite as overbearing as some of the residents of Edge had been. But even though he was good company, Cloud was eager to part ways with him when the time came due to the dangers that he was heading into and because Mik was getting on in his years.

Careful to keep his cargo hidden from view as he rode, Cloud managed to park Fenrir in the lot that the inn kept for its guests and secured it with the inn after checking in.

The inn, called The Red Bubbly Mog, was an out-of-the-way treasure of Costa del Sol and offered large windows and comfortably rustic rooms. Leafy plants were set all around the main level and dining area of the inn as flowered creeping plants snuck inside around the ebony-framed windows. The bright sunlight poured in, casting a warm, golden glow throughout the whole inn.

Women were often jokingly advised not to sit near the partition between the dining area and the main level since the dining area was raised onto a second level about a meter above.

While relaxing at a table near a window in the dining area and overlooking the lower floor where the front desk was, he noticed Anyun walk into the inn and check in as well.

Trying to act nonchalant, Cloud tried not to attract too much attention to himself and continued to enjoy his coffee and cake. However, his SOLDIER's uniform once again foiled his attempts and Anyun took almost immediate notice of him when he turned from the front desk.

Without so much as a word, Anyun walked straight up to Cloud's table and sat down.

"What're you planning on finding in Gongaga, kid?" Anyun asked brashly. The scarf around his neck hung looser in the hot climates. "Nobody goes there 'cept to try to grave rob or get killed nowadays."

Cloud stayed silent, remembering what he was looking for on behalf of Shinra.

"Either way, kid, you're not going to get back home the same man you were when you left. Hell, you might not even leave unless you're forced to."

He looked up at the mercenary's face at the bitter tone in his voice. Before Cloud could say anything, Anyun had already risen from his seat and was leaving.

"Hey."

Anyun turned and looked back at him.

"You're headed there, too?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Got some unfinished business to attend to."

"We might be able to help each other out. You seem to know a lot more than I do about what's going in Gongaga."

Anyun shrugged. "Just as long as that merchant doesn't come along and screw us all over." He turned to leave. "But who knows… As a merchant, he does have some advantages over us, don't he?"

As Anyun left, both men saying nothing, Cloud a small black and white animal prowl around. It kept hiding and he never got a good look at what it was, but he had a very good idea what it was and purposely ignored it after looking straight at it.

Once night had fallen and several of the street markets were the only things left open, Cloud decided to take a stroll through them amongst the shadows.

He was weaponless save for a small knife that he had purchased off a stall in Edge, keeping it hidden at the small of his back, underneath his shirt. He was also without his Tsurugi holster and gloves, making him look much more normal to the average person though he kept his shoulder pad on.

Luckily, it was a peaceful night and the air was filled with excitement, much like a festival.

But soon after he had arrived, he could sense that someone was following him and made his way out of the markets to a small grove of trees.

_They're good_, he thought to himself as he checked his seeker's position. _But they're sure as hell not Shinra..._

When he reached the shadows of the trees, well hidden from the markets, he slid behind a tree and prepared to attack. His hand had reached under his shirt to his knife as he kept an eye out for any other threat when footsteps were heard crunching on the ground foliage coming into the grove.

"Why, hello there, laddie!" A black and white cat in boots and a crown suddenly jumped out in front of him.

Cloud jumped, almost throwing his dagger at the animatronic cat in surprise.

"I really would appreciate it if you didn't impale Cait Sith with that knife of yours, Cloud," a deep voice said as a man came around to talk to him.

"Then you shouldn't get him to jump out at me like that, Reeve," Cloud replied as he put the knife back and pushed his blond hair away from his face. "Long time no see. How's the WRO coming?"

"Good, good," Reeve said, picking Cait up into his arms. "We've got agents everywhere and I can find anyone I want just by asking."

Cloud chuckled, "Then I suppose this means that I can't go and hide anymore."

"Not if I need to find you," he said with a smile. "So I hear you're heading to Gongaga on a delivery of sorts."

"Yeah. Rufus actually showed up at the bar and talked to me, sent me off with the package. Who told you? Tifa?"

"Naturally. And from what I've heard about Gongaga, I put it upon myself to warn you about what's there and help you. It's no easy task entering Gongaga anymore, if it ever was in the first place."

Cloud quickly told him what Mik and Anyun told him on the barge.

"It sounds like you've made some interesting friends, Cloud. I'm surprised. But that's what the public tends to believe about Gongaga; that it's a place where people never return as they were and that new, horrible monsters live there that take the lives of anyone that comes near."

Inspecting and playing with the Cait Sith, Cloud looked up at him. "So I take it that you know what it is?"

Reeve, leaning against a tree with the distant glow of the market lights contrasting his ruggedly square face and softening the look of his beard and brown hair, shrugged.

As a former high-ranking Shinra employee, he was privy to many of the inner workings of the technology of the cities and how the mako reactors worked with them. With this knowledge, he was able to effectively restore parts of the ruins of the world and this earned him the respect and revere of authority, both legitimate and otherwise.

"I know that something had happened in Gongaga a while back, after the WEAPON obliterated the Shinra building and Holy battled it out with Meteor. Whatever it was, it made it worse and feared by everyone else in the Eastern Continent. From witnesses who got too close to the village, a strange sense of rage and regret kind of lingers in the air.

"A few of Gongaga's people managed to escape from there without suffering any sickness or whatever it is there. From what their testimonies, it happened _fast_."

Cloud absent-mindedly petted Cait Sith while listening to Reeve, thinking.

"People around here even know what it's about even though it's something of a taboo by now, I'd expect," Reeve added, looking towards the market where an elderly shopkeeper was arguing with an elderly customer about her wages.

"What are they calling it?" Cloud asked.

"Cayne," Reeve answered, "I think they're calling it that because of an old legend about a man and his brother, which I don't have an idea what it is. But I think that your delivery has something to do with it."

"More than likely," Cloud said, getting up and handing Cait back to Reeve. "I'm going to go back to the inn. Just a question, though."

Reeve nodded, listening.

"Does WRO have anything to do with the two guys I just met?"

Reeve laughed, "No, they don't, as far as I know. But I'd keep an eye out on that Anyun character; he seems a bit uneven."

"I think he'd get along with Vincent," Cloud said dryly.

"Oh, most likely, they would if they don't kill each other first. You might see him on your way to Gongaga. He's been seen somewhere on this continent so you could ask him yourself if he knows anything about it."

Cloud nodded. "Thanks, Reeve. I'll see you around."

Cait suddenly jumped out of Reeve's arms and waved to Cloud as he left, "Toodles, Cloud! I'm sure we'll meet again soon enough!"

Cloud waved his dagger farewell at them in response and went back to the Mog with thoughts flying in his mind.

-------

A/N: Sorry for the long delay in the updates. Work more or less prevented me from using the computer much until this week.

Yeah, not too much prose here since it's hard to keep it up without a good action scene or something that has to do with pure fantasy/sci-fi in it, I know. But I needed to get the story properly going without putting TOO much thought into it.

Besides, stories just like to come out in one way or another and this chapter came out like this.

REview!


	4. The Chariot

"_And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?  
__10And he said, What hast thou done?"_ (Genesis 4:9-10)

-------

The moonlight glistened off the dew that had settled on the sparse foliage around Costa del Sol. In the east, the sky was just revealing the first gray streaks of the dawn, partially obscured by dark clouds gathering. It was quiet, as it always is in the hour before the dawn.

Swift and quiet as the shadows themselves, two figures stepped out of the Red Bubbly Mog and looked around in the cool, weak light.

"Looks like rain," Anyun said under his breath, looking up at the clouds. He reached into the bag on his back and pulled out a pair of goggles. "You sure this is a good idea, kid?"

Cloud paused for a second, glancing back at him.

The moonlight caught the tips of his blond hair, making them seem like that part of his head was glowing. A gentle, chill wind flowed through and ruffled their clothes away from them as they both went down the steps, making the cover on his leg and Anyun's long jacket dance in the shimmer of the moon.

"Yeah," Cloud said softly. "Never know what might happen."

"Seemed kind of reluctant to come with us," he added, walking with Cloud to his motorcycle. "He didn't seem to keen on the idea of going anywhere near Gongaga."

"He did say it was a suicide mission to go there," Cloud reminded him as they neared the garage.

"Yeah. Whatever he decides, we're still going ahead with or without him." He jabbed a gloved hand away from the inn towards another part of the city. "I'll be a second. I'll grab Mule and get 'er over here and damned be that merchant if he's late."

Cloud nodded and watched the tall figure of Anyun melt into the shadow of a building.

He continued around the inn to retrieve Fenrir. He was once again clad in his SOLDIER's clothing and his Tsurugi harness was strapped to his back. In the faint light of the dawn and the reflections of the moonlight around him, everything almost seemed to be moving in a dreamlike state, fueled by the sleeping inhabitants of the bustling city.

As he neared his motorcycle, he noticed that something small was resting on the seat of Fenrir. Since it was in the shadows of the inn, he slowed his walk and stepped forward, never taking his eyes off the little lump on his motorcycle.

The little thing suddenly raised her head and looked at him, wondering why he disturbed her from her sleep. She yawned, showing him her teeth and the pinkness of her mouth, and stretched her paws out on the seat of Fenrir as Cloud came closer.

"You almost scared me there, cat," he said, petting her marmalade head and listened to her purr. "But you can't stay there."

The cat meowed at him, looking back at him with the same vibrancy in her eyes as his.

"No. I can't take you with me. It's too dangerous for a kitty like you."

Purring loudly, she leaned into his touch, demanding that he pet her and winning over his affections like only a cat or dog could to a person. She meowed softly as he reluctantly chuckled and pet her head.

She suddenly turned at stared into the darkness where the light of the dawn hadn't reached yet and stopped making any noise, ears perked and funneled to the trees.

Cloud could sense it as well. Something was lurking in the trees and he could tell that it was watching them.

He stopped petting the cat, giving her the chance to leave but, to his surprise, she stayed lying flat on the motorcycle, staring into the trees and absolutely motionless.

Slowly, he moved his hand to the trigger mechanism on Fenrir to open the compartments where the blades of his Tsurugi were stored. Gently, he said to the cat under his arm, "I'm just going to open this up so please don't scratch my eyes out."

He was leaning over Fenrir with his hand right on the mechanism, eyes never leaving the trees and the cat never leaving her place, when a monster of strange proportions crawled out of the darkness.

It crawled out on two huge barrels of arms, muscular and long. They ended in stumps instead of conventional hands and wrists with seven short but strong stubby fingers that were adorned with thick, sharp claws. Its elbows were held at almost 90 degrees and had a fierce claw jutting out at the angle.

It had no legs but a long, powerful tail that dragged along the ground with its body that ended in a pair of heavy spikes that grew out of the end.

But the most ferocious part of the monster was its mouth. It was compact but its teeth were always shown. Two fangs grew out of its bottom jaw with rows of razor sharp teeth lining its mouth. Giant nostrils sat above it, followed by a pair of beady, slit eyes that glared at them, bloodshot and void.

The cat glared at the monster, puffing up her fur to look three times her actual size.

The monster glared back, uttering a low, guttural growl with saliva and blood slowly dripping down from its fangs. It suddenly rushed towards Cloud and the cat, rumbling the ground underneath them.

Cloud instantly activated the mechanism and the compartments shot out, causing the cat to jump and yowl in surprise. He quickly yanked out one of the switchblade swords and jumped away from Fenrir and the cat.

To his horror, the monster didn't follow him and kept pounding its way to the terrified kitty, its dead eyes locked on and jaws opening to swallow the cat up in a flurry of white and orange fur.

He rushed back, kicking off the base of a tree next to him, sword bared. Racing against the monster to reach the cat, he reached out and wrapped his arm protectively around the orange animal and delivered a strong underhanded slash to the monster.

It let out a deep, resounding growl at the pain Cloud dealt, having many of the bones within its skull shattered by the blade.

Quickly jumping backwards, away from Fenrir and its precious cargo and with the cat firmly in his arms, he lured the monster into the middle of the road.

"Come on," he muttered, flipping his sword around him into a good attack stance, reflecting the rays of the rising sun.

Blood oozing out of its nostrils and mouth, it stomped towards him. One, two steps with its thundering arms and it leaped into the air, tail thrashing behind it, jaws open with its fetid stench rushing at him and the cat in his arms.

He had just raised his sword when a muffled gunshot blast echoed around them and the monster slammed into the wall beside Cloud, splattering blood and saliva on him. The creature slowly dissolved into nothingness, like all undead monsters did, showing each layer of its dead sinew and bone before disappearing completely.

Holding a smoking shotgun, Mik was leaning on the overhead bar of Anyun's vehicle that he so lovingly named Mule. Almost indistinguishable from the image Cloud had first seen him, Mik was now strapped up with ammunition for his shotgun and the extra pack in the back of Mule undoubtedly had more weaponry for them to use.

A streak of silver above his right eye highlighted the rest of his graying head that contrasted with the youthful grin Mik was giving Cloud.

"Found a new pet?" he called over. Wrinkles showed around his eyes.

Cloud set the cat down on the ground, his arm scratched up from her clawing and went to get on Fenrir. He gasped when he felt the cat paw at his pant cloth, trying to climb up onto his lap to go with him.

"I'd sure as hell say he did," Anyun growled. "It's not coming with us!"

Holding her snug in his arm, he slowly drove to Mule and held her out to Anyun. "You try telling her that yourself and see what happens. I tried and it didn't work."

Without hesitating, the orange cat leapt from Cloud's hand and dropped into the car, firmly planting herself in the backseat and gaining many stares from the three men. She looked straight at Anyun and meowed, as if to tell him that she was going with them.

"… You heard her," Mik said, sitting back down. "Let's go."

Anyun growled and got out of the car with a slam. He grabbed the cat and distinctly told her, "You're not comin' with us, kitty. You'll just get in the way so get out of here and leave us alone!"

He dropped her at the doorstep of the Mog and headed back to Mule only to see a streak of orange rush by him and jump into the car. "What the…! You damn cat, get out of there!"

"Anyun," Cloud called over, "just leave her be. She probably travels all over the world like this so she'll leave us when she's good and ready. It's not like we need to keep a constant watch over her."

"Bloody hell from here to damnation," grumbled Anyun as he climbed back into Mule and put it in gear.

Mik climbed into the backseat and sat next to the cat while Anyun drove out of Costa del Sol, following Cloud's wake of dust. He rummaged through his bags for something while the cat lay on the seat, watching him with her large green eyes.

"I have just the thing for you, cutie," Mik said, going through a smaller bag he withdrew from the back. "It might even come in handy for you someday."

She gingerly got to her feet in the rocking car and sniffed the bag in his arms, curious.

"Ah!" He pulled it away from her, getting a slightly offended look from her. "It's a surprise, cutie. Just wait a bit." He continued looking through the bag while she looked on, still pawing at the bag.

"Found it!" He pulled out a thick silver ring with what looked like small rubies and emeralds embedded into the band. "This is a magical item, cutie. I managed to barter it off of a merchant way out near Fort Condor. But now that I look at it, I don't know if it'll fit on your paw or your tail, it's so big… But let's see anyway."

Carefully, he slid the ring onto her thin, waving tail and watched in amazement as the ring sparkled in the morning sun and stayed around her tail without touching her fur.

Anyun glanced back and saw the ring levitating on the cat but said nothing. _Guess she's not a normal cat, is she?_

"We still have to name you, don't we, cutie?" Mik cooed to the cat while petting her.

Anyun just rolled his eyes behind his goggles and picked up speed to match Cloud's. He yelled over, "He's naming your cat!"

Cloud simply glanced back at Mik, who shrugged and called back, "I guess I'll wait until we stop and we can all decide?"

Shaking his head, Cloud revved up Fenrir and tore off into the sandy lands beyond the cities through the region of Corel.

Here was where the activity of the world gathered and where all forms of life thrived. Birds of all sizes soared through the skies without a care and the lush green fields held the animals of the earth close. The sun bathed them all, creatures of innocence and beasts of lore, in its warmth while the clouds brought shade and refreshing rain to replenish the spirits of all.

Cloud rode through the land with Anyun, Mik and the little cat behind in Mule like he was gliding over the roads.

Fenrir seemed to part the fields of green with trailing clouds of dust as it flew down the roads, familiar with the path and the surroundings. Creatures of all sorts looked up at them as they passed, curious about the lives of others before settling back into their own. A trio of wolf cubs came running by them, enjoying the harmless chase and following them for a while before their mother called them back with a majestic howl.

They had stopped a little way off the road in a forest for the night and were eating some of the provisions they had secured in Costa del Sol when Cloud brought something up.

"For a merchant, you have a pretty good aim," he said to Mik, feeding the cat on his lap with some jerky. "And I guess you're not quite as old as you made it seem on that boat."

"Not quite," chuckled Mik. "I get that a lot."

"How old are you?"

"Old enough to get around by myself, young enough to fight off monsters by myself with this," he replied and patted his double-barreled shotgun. "It has kept me safe ever since I left home as a merchant and I'm hoping it will keep me safe at Gongaga."

"You're awfully vague about yourself, merchant," Anyun said. "Sounds to me like you've got something to hide."

Perhaps it was just the dim lighting of the night and the dancing flames of the campfire, but Cloud thought he saw something flicker in Mik's eyes; something that wasn't quite normal for a human. The fire cast a glow over them all, tinting everything around it with a golden-red light.

Nevertheless, Mik just gave a quiet smile and said, "Don't we all? You speak like those in North Corel yet you look somewhat like those who come from the south."

Anyun simply looked at Mik with his piercing dark eyes that looked like pools of black in the darkness. Mik looked back, barely fazed by his intimidation. "Guess we all have something to hide, hmm?"

"I guess we do," Anyun said quietly into the scarf around his neck.

The trees rustled around them in the wind. Cloud stroked the cat in his arms, hoping that he wouldn't have to someday stop a fight between the two. The tension between the two, especially on Anyun's part, could be problematic for them in the future in his mind.

The trees rustled a second time and, with his keener senses, Cloud caught a glimpse of something in the branches.

He stared up at the branches, stars and the fire reflected in his intensely blue eyes.

"Now, the kid over there has some open secrets for everyone to see," Anyun said. "Only those specially treated with mako have eyes that glow like that. Look like the cat's eyes, don't they?"

Mik nodded. "How long has it been since you got it, Cloud?"

He didn't answer and kept looking at the trees. Even the cat was looking up at the trees with him.

"Cloud?"

Gently taking the cat in his arms, he got up, walked close to a tree with dense branches and foliage and stood under it, still looking up. Unheard by both Anyun and Mik, the slightest squeal could be heard.

"Yuffie, get out of the tree and you can say hello to the cat," Cloud said and walked back with the cat still in his arms.

The young Wutai ninja girl immediately dropped out of the tree and ran straight to Cloud, almost knocking him down in efforts to get the cat. "She is so CUTE!"

Taking the cat into her arms and smothering her with affection and kisses, she completely ignored the two other men sitting next to the fire and the fact that she nearly sent Cloud flying into the ground.

"You are so absolutely adorable!" She gushed to the cat, who was purring. "I wish I could take you home and call you my own but Vincent and Reeve wouldn't like that, would they? No, he wouldn't! But everyone else would! Yes, they would! Aren't you such a pretty kitty? Yes, you are!"

_Apparently, Yuffie has a soft spot for cats_, Cloud thought in amazement to himself.

Finally noticing the two other men, Yuffie looked at them with her eyebrow raised. "What? You haven't seen a cat-loving girl before?"

The men stayed silent and watched the fire.

"What're you doing here, Yuffie?" Cloud asked. "Did Reeve send you or something?"

"Cloud, did you name her yet?" Yuffie asked excitedly, clearly not listening to him and sitting down with the cat in her arms.

He shook his head.

"Oooh! Can I name her?"

"Yuffie, she's not…"

"I shall name you… Seishinryoku! But it's too long, isn't it?" She nuzzled the cat in her arms. "So! We shall call you Yoku for short, okay? Is that good, Yoku?"

Yoku simply purred continuously and rubbed against her.

"Yay! She likes it, Cloud! Now all of you have to keep calling her that!"

"Okay, okay," he sighed and sat down beside her, prompting Yoku to climb off Yuffie and walk around to make sure nothing strange was around before making her way back to Cloud.

After a brief introduction between Yuffie, Mik and Anyun, Cloud further pressed the reason why she was hiding in the trees.

"Yeah, Reeve told me to keep an eye on you," she said exasperatedly, rolling her eyes. "Also said to keep hidden but I really don't see the point in trying to hide from you when I know you perfectly well and we're friends."

"Who's Reeve?" Mik asked, offering her some smoked pork.

"Reeve is the founder of the WRO," she replied, taking some with a smile and eating it. "It's the World Regenesis Organization but we're all just helping out to get this world back to normal."

"Is there any reason why he sent you to us this time around?" Cloud asked.

She got up and ran back to her tree, nimbly scrambling up and retrieving her equipment and her bag. She climbed through the branches from tree to tree and dropped down to sit next to Cloud again rather than walking back. Setting her gigantic shuriken down into the ground with a thud, she rummaged through her bag.

"Here it is!" Yuffie declared, pulling out a bag full of what appeared to be large marbles. However, Cloud knew exactly what they were.

"Materia?" Anyun asked softly. "You brought us materia?"

"Yup!" She chirped and handed to Cloud. "These are yours since I kind of forgot to give them back to you after your fight with Kadaj…"

"Thank you."

"And you're going to Gongaga, right? I hate it when you don't answer your cell and I don't get an answer from you until like three months after I call you. You're a royal pain in the ass like that, you know," she said and shoved him playfully.

A small smile tugged at his lips and he pushed her back.

"So that's why I'm going with you."

"What!" Anyun exclaimed and bolted upright from his lying position. "You're not coming with us to Gongaga, missy. Why does everyone we meet wants to go to that goddamned town?"

"You can't tell me what to do!" Yuffie snapped back at him. "I'm technically supposed to be following Cloud anyway so I might as well just join your little party and help out."

"You're. Not. Coming!"

"Yes, I am!"

"You're going to get in our way! We don't need another damn thing to get in our way and slow us down even more and you're just going to do that."

Yuffie glared at him. "You don't know that I'm like that."

"I can tell just by looking at you, missy," Anyun said as he lay back down.

Smugly, she pulled out a small, intricately and expertly made golden pocket watch on a chain. She swung it from side to side, reflecting and winking the fire's light back at him. "It's a fine watch, don't you think? It has a really pretty design of a crest on it."

Startled beyond belief, Anyun patted himself down to realize that Yuffie had taken it from deep within his pockets without him even realizing it was gone.

She tossed it back to him, a glare in her eyes. "Don't judge me by my looks."

He caught it, having nothing to say. "Just be prepared, missy. I doubt any of you know what you're getting into."

--- ---

A/N: I couldn't figure out a good name for the new monster yet but it will be back. With those jaws and teeth, that thing could easily chomp off someone's arm. Ouucchhh.

Hopefully I'll be able to think up of a good name soon and get another chapter up. Ja ne!


End file.
